Daily Current Affairs Updates– 15th February 2016

February 15, 2016

Daily Current Affairs Updates– 15thFebruary 2016:

Daily Current affairs News Updates about the National and International events were listed here. Candidates those who are preparing for IBPS/SBI/PO/Clerk exam and all other competitive exams can use this.

·The ministry’s objective is to compensate the traders who had transacted on the now defunct NSEL (the government had asked it close down in late 2013), from the cash holdings of FTIL, a listed entity. FTIL is moving the Bombay high court to challenge the government order.

·In July 2013, the commodities futures market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) had ordered NSEL to discontinue its commodities contracts. Within weeks, the exchange folded up with about 13,000 investors unable to get paid from a handful of borrowers on the exchange.

2.PM prods private sector to start investing at Make in India:

·Prime Minister Narendra Modi prodded industrialists to kick start their investments and not wait for opportune time as global players are looking for joint ventures and technical collaboration with Indian companies.

·Modi wasaddressing the movers and shakers of India at an event to inaugurate the week-long ‘Make in India’ campaign.

·Extending full support to new-age start-ups, he said the young start-ups are showing us newer and faster way for enterprise and delivery of services across sectors including pollution control, health, education, agriculture and services.

3.Gujarat woos IT firms with new policy:

·Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sDigital India programme and promote development of IT industry, the Gujarat government on Friday announced a new IT&ITes Policy offering several incentives.The five-year policy is effective from 2016.

·The policy aims to increase investment, exports and turnover of Gujarat’s IT industry along with creation of employment. The policy promises many incentives for creating IT and ITes parks as well as IT units.

4. Bhubaneswar among cleanest cities in country:

·Odisha capital emerged as the top among the cities in the Smart City Mission,Bhubaneswar is all set to add another feather to its cap.

·The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will receive the Clean City award from Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi.

·Under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the city has been considered by the Urban development Ministry as one of the cleanest among 75 cities in the country.

·In 2015, Bhubaneswar was ranked at 331 among the 476 cities and behind Cuttack with a rank of 296.

5.Parsvnath snaps Rs.1,651 cr pact with Indian Railways:

·Parsvnath Developers has terminated its development agreement with the Railways Land Development Authority (RLDA) due to a title dispute related to a 38-acre land stretch that the company had bought for Rs.1,651 crore.

·Parsvnath through an auction had bought this piece of land located at Sarai Rohilla-Kishanganj in the national capital from RLDA in 2010 for Rs.1,651 crore.

·The company has already paid about Rs.1,200 crore against the purchase of this land parcel.

6.Ministry rejects smart card plan for unorganised workers:

·The Labour Ministry had originally planned to give smart card directly to all the unorganised workers, but the Finance Ministry had raised objections on the huge costs that would entail.

·The Unorganised Workers’ Identification Number (U-WIN) scheme, first mooted in September 2014, proposed to provide a smart card to the unorganised workers for entitled to benefits under various schemes such asRashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) as well as the Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana.

·The portable smart card would have details of bank account, mobile numbers and benefits of social security schemes that can be availed by the workers.

7. National Green Tribunal approved the controversial Hubli-Ankola railway line in Karnataka:

·The NGT gave its approval to the controversial railway link between the Hubbali-Ankola in Karanataka, and asked the railways to approach the state Government for moving further.

·The order assumes significance asSupreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) last year had disapproved the 168-km rail link project, conceived in 1998 primarily to transport iron ore from the Bellary-Hospet mines, and said that it would have “huge and irreparable” ecological impact on the forests, wildlife and biodiversity of the Western Ghats

8. Oracle To Open Its First India Campus In Bengaluru:

·Global computer giant Oracle is planning to set up a campus in Bengaluruand start an initiative to help more than half a million students in India develop computer science skills.

·The Oracle India campus will be spread over a huge 2.8 million square feet, andwill be largest outside its headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. The company will also launch 9 incubation centres throughout India, and train more than half a million students each year to develop computer science skills. The centres will be located in Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai , Noida, Pune, Trivandrum and Oracle Academy Expansion.

·Oracle’s global CEO Safra Catz

INTERNATIONAL:

9. Indo Seychelles Joint Military Exercise (EX LAMITYE):

·The Seventh Joint Military Training Exercise between the Indian Army and the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF)–LAMITYE 2016, will be conducted at Seychelles Defence Academy (SDA), Victoria, Seychelles from 15 February to 28 February 2016.

·The SPDF will be represented by 20 personnel from Tazar (Special Forces Unit) and 32 from Seychelles Infantry. The Indian contingent will comprise of an Infantry platoon and representatives from the Special Forces.

·India and Seychelles have been conducting joint exercises since 2001& ‘Exercise Lamitye’, which meansfriendshipin Creole (local dialect), is conducted biennially with the aim of enhancing military cooperation and interoperability between the two countries.

10.Obama to host US-Asean summit in California:

·ASEAN leaders are in California for a summit with US President Barack Obama.

·It is the first meeting of its kind on US soil. On the agenda are issues like trade, economy, counter-terrorism and security. An investment conference will take place in San Francisco.

·The summit is designed to kick offa year of renewed American focus on the Asia-Pacific region.

11.Indian-American may be nominated to US apex court:

·Sri Srinivasan could become the first Indian-American to be on the Bench of the US Supreme Court after conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death gave rise to speculation that President Barack Obama may nominate the moderate judge who enjoys impeccable bipartisan support.

·Chandigarh-born Srikanth ‘Sri’ Srinivasan, 48, tops the list of prospective justice to the country’s highest judicial body as Obama said he plans to fulfil his “constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor” to Scalia

12. Dubai To Build World’s Largest Mall:

·Dubai plans to build the world’s largest shopping malldespite an economic slowdown looming in the region, but would assess market demand before proceeding with the project’s later stages.

·The Mall of the World project, encompassing 8 million sq. feet (745,000 sq. meter) of shopping space connected to a theme park, 100 hotels and serviced apartment buildings with 20,000 rooms, was announced in mid-2014, just as oil prices began a precipitous plunge

·Ahmad Bin Byat, vice chairman and managing director of Dubai Holding, predicted it would still become the world’s largest shopping destination, adding that the first phase — representing about a quarter of the project’s size — would be completed before Dubai hosts the Expo 2020 exhibition

13. Canada, US, Mexico ink MoU to Cooperate on Climate Change:

·Canada, United States (US) and Mexico have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Climate Change and Energy Collaborationto tap into energy cooperation among three countries.

·The MoU was signed at the North American Energy Ministers Meeting held in Winnipeg, Canada and hosted by Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Jim Car

BANKING:

14. Government to lower stake in PSU Banks to 51%: Jaitley

·The Government will soon lower its stake in state owned banks to 51%,Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Said.

·Notably this comes after public sector banks posted their Highest ever Quarterly loss of over 12687 Crore for the Last Quarter.

·Further the government is also committed to bringing down the direct corporate taxes over the next four years.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY:

15.GoAir announces limited period ‘zero cancellation fee’ offer:

·Budget carrier GoAir offered zero cancellation charges to its customers for flight bookingsacross its network for a limited period.

·The offer is valid across all GoAir flights booked between February 13-16 for travel between June 1 and December 15, 2016.

·As per the scheme, passengers will not have to bear flight cancellation costs if tickets are cancelled 30 days prior to departure

·This is Tata’s eighth investment in start-ups in 2016so far. Tata, former Tata Group chairman, has invested over 20 start-ups so far.

·In January 2016, SnapBizz had announced a Series A funding of USD 7.2 million led by Jungle Ventures, Taurus Value creation, Konly Venture and Blume Ventures

18. Youtube Acquires Bandpage:

·BandPage has been acquired by Google owned YouTube for a reported $8 million. That’s far less than the $27.6 million raised by the startup since launching in 2009.

·BandPage is already heavily integrates into both YouTube and Google, delivering photos and band info for more than 500,000 artists, along with direct to fan offerings from hundreds of musician

APPOINTMENTS:

19. Piruz Khambatta Named Ambassador For Make In India:

·Rasna chairman Piruz Khambatta has been namedambassador of the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative by the Government of India.

·Rasna said it will support entrepreneurs who wishto come up with turnkey plant to manufacture food products which it would market under its own brand on a contract manufacturing basis, in addition to fostering and mentoring startups as part of the Make in India initiatives.

·Rasna’s brand ambassador-Actor Akshay Kumar.

AWARDS AND HONORS:

20. 69th British Academy Film Awards announced:

·The69th British Academy Films Awards (BAFTAs)were announced. The award ceremony was held at theRoyal Opera House in London.

·The awards were announced to honour the best British and international contributions to film in 2015. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), accolades were handed out for the best in feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality, that were screened at British cinemas during 2015.

·The nominees were announced on 8 January 2016 by Stephen Fry and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

·Wilderness dramaThe Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, won the Best Film Award.Brooklynwas named the Outstanding British Film whileInside Outwon the Best Animated Film.Amywon the award in Best Documentary category

·‘Nagaland is changing, But…’, a film on conservation efforts by villagers has won theGolden Beaver Best Film Award in the institutional category at this year’s 6th National Science Film Festival in Mumbai.

·The film also received thetechnical excellence award for best sound design at the festival, organized by Vigyan Prasar of the Department of Science and Technology.

·Director of the film, Gurmeet Sapal, received the award from noted filmmaker M S Sathyu in Mumbai.

SPORTS:

23.SAG: Anand clinches first taekwondo gold for India

·Anand clinched the first taekwondo gold for India in the U-87 kg category in the 12th South Asian Games, by defeating Afghanistan’s Ramesh Hossani in the final.

·India had to settle for silver in the U-54 Kg section as Abrar Khan lost to Afghanistan’s Mohsen Razaei.

·Popularly known as ONV, Kurup began his career as a progressive writer and matured into a humanist though he never gave up his commitment to socialist ideology. He was a part of the progressive movement in Kerala and wrote some of the most remembered poems and film lyrics

29. Noted music director Rajamani passes away in Chennai:

·Popular southern composer Rajamani died in Chennai. He was 60.

·Besides learning Carnatic music, Rajamani also dabbled in Western and Hindustani music. His first independent venture was 1983 Tamil film “Gramathu Kiligal”, followed by “Kalloori Kanavugal” in the same year. In 1985, Rajamani made his Malayalam debut with “Nullinovikkaathe”.

·He went on to score music for successful Malayalam films like “Ekalavyan”, “Commissioner”, “The King”, “Aram Thampuran” and “Narasimham”.